


From 2015 to 485: S4E4 Aithusa

by Sop12345d



Series: From 2015 to 485 [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Adventure, Beginning of a crush, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: S04e04 Aithusa, Friendship, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:22:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9161200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sop12345d/pseuds/Sop12345d
Summary: Merlin's secret is still secret, Arthur is King and peace rules in Camelot... until one day when it doesn't, with the arrival of a certain girl who challenges everything they know. Who is this girl, and how did she get here? This is Aneeka's story. Spoilers up to S4E4.





	1. Chapter 1

I sighed and rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache coming on. I was currently at home, trying to study for my math exam. However, in the last few minutes, whenever I tried to look at the numbers and words, they swam off the page and mixed themselves together, only making me more dizzy. What was wrong with me today?

I closed the textbook and decided to maybe try to eat something. I had had a snack when I had gotten home from my French exam earlier in the day, but maybe some more food would help. I hoped I wasn't getting sick. I stood and walked away from the couch, stumbling a bit and nearly falling over the coffee table. Suddenly, with no warning, I tripped over a fold in the carpet and fell to the floor, everything spinning, then succumbed to darkness.

* * *

When I woke up, it was gradually. First, I heard the sounds. There was birdsong and the rustle of leaves in the wind and I thought I heard the burbling of a nearby stream and the  _clop-clop_  of faraway horses galloping across stones. Hold on,  _horses?_ Where did the horses come from? I remembered through the haze that I lived in the city, so I must be hallucinating or something.  _Great._

I slowly got up from my position face down on the ground and looked around. I was on the edge of a forest, next to a small creek, and there was a path several feet to my left leading to a city. Except the city was like no city I had ever seen, except once.

Camelot.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

I froze where I stood, taking in the castle's spires and smooth stones. It couldn't be... it  _was!_

I had, like any other self-respecting Netflix binge-watcher, seen every episode of Merlin, the most recent TV show I had gotten myself addicted to. To tell the truth, I still wasn't fully convinced that this was only a very vivid dream. I heard horses and voices laughing coming closer and I ducked down in the bushes, watching the road leading to Camelot. Someone was coming.

They passed in an instant, but I saw their faces. It was Merlin and Arthur, galloping as fast as they could on their respective horses. They seemed to be racing, and they looked to be having fun. I blinked, trying to understand. Was I in the Merlin universe? I had an idea and took out my phone, which thankfully had been in my pocket when this affair had happened. I looked at the screen and it said, "No Service"...  _Obviously,_ I thought. There wouldn't be any cell towers in the 5th century. Then I looked at the date and time. "No Information Available," it proclaimed. That I wasn't surprised about either. My phone had only the date and time databanks going back to 1970. Though I was intrigued that my phone even survived the trip to wherever and whenever this was.

_Young one..._

I jumped, hearing a strong, deep voice, but I should've known. It was the Great Dragon, Kilgarrah.

 _...Yes?_ I asked in my head, wondering if I would get a reply.

_Young one, I have brought you here from your dimension for a reason._

I was pissed.  _You brought me here?! Why? Just leave me alone!_

 _Young one,_ the Dragon started angrily and a little impatiently.  _We do not have the time for this. Merlin has always and will always be the one to look out for and protect Arthur, but that leaves no one to look after him. The young warlock believes that he can look after himself, but alas, this is not the truth. I summoned you because of your great empathy and ability to understand other's feelings and thoughts._

 _Great,_ I thought-said.  _So you dragged me from my home, who knows how many trillions of billions of millions of miles away, in another_ universe,  _to protect_ Merlin,  _the greatest warlock to have ever and will ever live._

_Yes, young one. He may not believe it to be so, but he needs someone there for him._

His infuriatingly calm tone really irked me, but I managed to take a deep breath and think.  _So... what do you want me to do?_

 _You must go to Camelot, young one, and stay close to Merlin. Protect him. It may be his destiny to protect the Once and Future King, but it is_ your  _destiny to protect the Protector._

I felt, more than heard, his voice fade from my mind, leaving me alone and lost in a world I had only dreamed of. As I set of resignedly towards Camelot, I could've sworn that I heard a whisper in my ear, a faint  _Good luck, Aneeka..._

* * *

When I reached the city gates, I got quite a few stares. I looked down and finally realized why. I was wearing tight jeans and a V-neck striped T-shirt. No wonder they were giving me strange looks. I blushed and increased my pace, my head bowed. I avoided the curious eyes of the guards and found a suitable alley to hide in for the time being. I breathed out in relief,  _so far so good,_ and looked around.

I was in the middle of the market, with people haggling over fabric and food and livestock and a million other strange sights and smells, yelling over each other to be heard. It was midday, going by the sun's position in the clear sky, and scorching hot. I guess this was market day, considering how many people were around. Suddenly, a familiar face caught my eye. Julius Borden. He must be heading to Gaius's chambers to see if he would help him get the third part of the Triskelion.  _Unlikely,_ I scoffed inwardly. Seeing as he was the only person around here that I recognized, I slipped out from my alley and followed him.

After many twists and turns, he finally lead me (unknowingly) to the Rising Sun, the famous tavern of the lower town. He must be getting settled in there before he goes to see Gaius. I crept to the side of the building ( _More like a hut,_ I thought derisively) and leaned against the wall, pondering what to do. Just as I decided to stick around until night fell and Borden could lead me to Gaius' chambers (I obviously had no way of knowing how to find them), I saw yet another familiar face.

I observed Merlin get down from his horse and take the reins of both his horse and Arthur's, who had just descended from the tired-looking animal and was currently yelling over his shoulder, "Get the horses to the stables, Merlin! I have a council meeting to get to, so don't be late!"

"Okay!" Merlin replied, tying the reins together so he could lead both of the horses at the same time. Suddenly, a boy of perhaps no more than my age came running out of the tavern to my right, closely pursued by a hulking barkeeper, who obviously wasn't happy with him. In the boy's hand was a couple of slices of bread, which he must have stolen. I took a step forward to get in between the terrified-looking boy, who was thin as a rake, and the barkeeper, but surprisingly, Merlin beat me to it. No, he didn't get in between the barkeeper and the boy, but his eyes flashed gold and the barkeeper tripped over his own feet, leaving the boy to run off back home, probably having stolen the food for his family. I shook my head in sadness as I watched him disappear expertly into the crowd and looked back at Merlin, who, all of a sudden, met my eyes, as if finally sensing someone watching him. The widening of his eyes told me that he knew that I had just seen him use magic, which was supposed to be illegal in Camelot. I put a finger to my lips silently, then pointed to the barkeeper, who was just now getting up from the ground, and motioned for him to go, quickly. He nodded his thanks, looking quite confused, but quickly lead the horses away anyway, before the barkeeper could see him standing there. I shrank away from the fuming barkeeper, who stomped back to the Rising Sun, muttering curses under his breath, which I noted, with a feeling of disgust, stank of alcohol.

I ran around to the back of the tavern, not wanting to be seen by anyone who might have noticed the incident with the boy thief and the barkeeper, and ran, literally, into someone already standing there. We both fell down with soft cries of pain, clutching our heads. When my vision had cleared, I looked up and met the eyes of the person I had run into, an apology on my lips. Then they looked at me too and I thought,  _Merlin!_

His blue eyes showed surprise, then curiosity as he scrutinized my attire. "You're not from around here, are you." It was a statement, not a question.

"No, I'm not," I replied, staring back at him. He broke eye contact and stood up, holding a hand out for me to take. I hesitated, then reached out and he pulled me up. We both dusted ourselves off and Merlin grabbed onto the reins of the horses again, since he'd let go of them in his fall.

"So, what's your name?" he asked conversationally, but I knew that he just wanted to know the name of the person who knew he had magic and who didn't seem to be doing anything about it.

"Aneeka," I replied, eyeing our surroundings for anyone who might be eavesdropping.

"Well, nice to meet you, Aneeka." Merlin held out his hand, and I shook it firmly. He was smiling now, the stress and shock wearing off from the incident with the barkeeper and the fall from just now.

"Nice to meet you too, Merlin," I answered, letting go of his hand and turning to leave. "Have a nice day," I said over my shoulder. This was complete and utter bullshit. Like hell that I have some big, special destiny to protect someone. I'm just Aneeka. I'm nothing special.

A second passed, then, "Wait!"

I heard Merlin run to catch up to my brisk pace, the horses cantering behind him. "How do you know my name? I never told you!"

Shit! A bad slip of the tongue. "That doesn't matter," I said shortly, hoping he'd just leave me alone so I could find some corner to sleep in and wake up from this hellish nightmare.

"Uh, yes it does, actually! As far as I know, I've never met you! How do you know my name?" he continued, ever snarky.

Ugh. I had had enough. "I'm from the future, alright?!" And I stomped away, leaving a confused and shell-shocked warlock in my wake.

"What. Did. You. Just. Say?" he asked quietly, staring at me like I was mad, and he probably thought I was.

"I said, you nimrod," and here he flinched at the insult, "that I'm from the bloody year 2015."

"B-but," Merlin started, his eyes wide at such at the concept of such an incomprehensible amount of time between his time and my time. "That's more than 1000 years in the future!"

"Yes, I bloody well know that, thank you, Merlin." I replied sarcastically. By now we had stopped walking and were in a back alley to the far end of the market, near the gates again.

He paused, then, "That still doesn't explain how you know my name."

"Yes it does, if you think about it. In my present, in  _your_ future, there are legends of the great warlock Merlin, the greatest warlock to ever walk the earth, and his friend King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. They lived in Camelot in Great Britain sometime in the 5th or 6th century." I stopped for a breath.

There was silence behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see Merlin, standing stock-still, looking astonished. "I'm-Arthur-we," he huffed and blurted out, "We're  _legends?_ "

"Yes," I answered, because that was all I could say at this point, feeling too tired to be sarcastic.

"Wow," he breathed, a grin stretching from ear to ear. "A  _legend._ " And already, thought I would never admit it, I could see some of the reason why Kilgarrah brought me here, because Merlin looked so  _happy_ that, even in more than 1000 years in the future, he was still remembered for who he was. I knew from the TV show that the prophecies usually focused on Merlin's role in protecting Arthur so he could unite Albion, but it never elaborated much on how hard that must be for him, to have a destiny he couldn't escape, the burdens he must carry for each attempt on his friend's life.

And in that moment, seeing Merlin's cheerful face, I knew that I had to stay and play my role in this story, because I had the strangest feeling that it would be an important one.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:**

**Btw, if Scarlet Fever didn't exist in 485, then this story is an AU where it does, because I'm too lazy to research it. :) Enjoy!**

* * *

I watched as Merlin's grin faded as he realized he needed to be somewhere. "Oh! I completely forgot! Arthur wanted me to take the horses back to the stables! He'll put me in the stocks if I'm late!"

I chuckled at Arthur's "punishment" for being a terrible servant. The threat of being put in the stocks never actually helped Merlin's servant skills. "You'd better get going, then," I said.

"Yeah, I will. Oh! By the way, where are you staying in town? Just so I know where to find you," he asked, stumbling over his words.

I thought hard. I had no money in Camelot currency, so an inn or, god forbid,  _tavern,_ was out of the question. But where else could I go? The only person I could say I knew in Camelot was Merlin. "Nowhere, I guess. I just arrived in Camelot. It was a surprise trip," I answered, purposely leaving out the part about The Great Dragon dragging me here from another dimension. I had a feeling that that bit of information might just make Merlin faint with shock.

"Okay, well, why don't you stay at Gaius' for the night? He's the Court Physician. I'm sure he'd be fine with it. We've got spare cots for the injured."

I considered it. This was a good development, since it allowed me to be closer to Merlin, yet I didn't want to be a burden. "Thank you, Merlin. I accept. I can help around with the herbs and medicine to earn my stay. Back home, I learned a bit of medicine as well."

Merlin looked surprised. "You  _learned_ medicine? As in, you were  _taught_ it, and you didn't seek it out and  _study_ it?"

I frowned, as if it were obvious, which it was. "Yes, I did. Back home, they had these buildings called schools where they'd get adults who had studied various areas of study, like medicine or languages, and they'd get groups of children to teach them the basics of each field of study, getting more and more complex as the children got older. If this were my home, I'd be about to start eleventh grade because I'm fifteen years old."

His eyebrows raised disbelievingly. "You're  _fifteen?_ " he asked.

"Yeah..." I trailed off, sure that my height would've made that clearly evident. I've always been annoyingly slightly shorter than everybody else.

"Wow. You don't sound like it. Anyways, if you come with me, I can lead you to Gaius' chambers. Who knows? Maybe he'll take you on as an apprentice!" Merlin teased, nudging me with a bony elbow in the ribs.

I frowned and nudged him back. "Ow! You're too skinny for your own good, Merlin. That elbow is as sharp as a sword."

He laughed good-naturedly. "Well, at least you don't have that problem, then."

I looked myself up and down, then stared at him with eyes narrowed. "Are you calling me fat?" I asked incredulously. Boy, he was  _so_ going to get it if he was. At least I have a  _shape_ to my body.

He gasped in mock hurt. "No! No, I would  _never!_ Why would you think that?"

"Hmph. Nimrod." I said, pausing in our walking to cough into my elbow for a few seconds.

Merlin eyed me coughing, then shook it off and said, "Come on. It's just this way," motioning with his head.

I nodded and followed, muttering, "Thank you, you know," gratefully.

"Whatever for?" Merlin asked, confused.

"For helping me find a place to stay in Camelot," I answered. I was about to say that we'd better hurry, since it was starting to get dark and I wanted to get there before Borden did but I was cut off by a massive sneeze. "ACHOO!"

I breathed noisily through my mouth and sighed. Yup, I was getting sick. I could already feel a sore throat coming on. I wiped my nose on my sleeve, having nothing else to use, and mumbled in a nasally voice, "Come on. We need to get there before it gets dark."

"Are you ill?" Merlin asked, grabbing my arm and turning me to him so he could see my face better. His expression morphed into one of concern when he saw my teary eyes, running nose and sweaty forehead.

"Possibly," I croaked sarcastically. "What does it look like?"

He frowned disapprovingly before leading me again to the Court Physician's chambers. "We need to get you treated. That looks like the beginning of Scarlet Fever."

I recognized that name. It was an extreme case of the common cold, or the flu or something, but where the body couldn't fight off the sickness and died, leaving the victim scarlet with fever (hence the name). I tried to say that no, it wasn't Scarlet Fever, because I had had many colds and flus in my fifteen years and none of them were that bad, but then the dizziness usually associated with a fever hit me and I stumbled, now fully focused on staying upright. Merlin gripped my elbow and jogged the rest of the way with me in tow.

When we got in, Gaius was writing something with a feather quill on a piece of parchment. "Gaius!" Merlin yelled, getting his attention. He looked up and saw the two of us in the doorway.

He rushed over and helped me to a cot. "What happened? Who is the girl?" he asked, already preparing potions and tinctures.

Merlin replied, "Her name is Aneeka. I met her in the lower town today." Here he leaned in closer to the old physician, as if to prove to him of his honesty. "She saw me use magic, Gaius." Gaius' eyes widened and he glanced at me anxiously, opening his mouth to speak, but Merlin continued. "And she didn't turn me in when she could've."

Now Gaius looked surprised. "She  _didn't?_ " he asked incredulously, glancing at me again, but this time in wonder. Quickly, however, he snapped into physician mode when I brought up a hand to wipe the sweat from my face, which was collecting there rapidly.

"Merlin, I'll need a bucket of water and some cloths," Gaius ordered Merlin, and the latter nodded and ran out with an empty bucket to the nearest well. To me, he asked, "Aneeka, do you have any idea what ails you? Did you come into contact with an odd substance, or maybe some new food?"

I shook my head. "No, I didn't. But I think that I have a cold."

Gaius looked surprised that I could diagnose myself. "How would you know that?"

I smiled at him. "I've been taught a bit about medicine and illness. Don't worry, my body's immune system will fight this off in a few days."

The physician hit me with his trademark raised eyebrow. "Your... immune system?"

"Yes. There's the integumentary system, the skeletal system, the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, the endocrine system, the muscular system, the respiratory system, the urinary system, the reproductive system, the digestive system and the immune system," I replied, remembering my science class textbook.

Gaius' mouth fell open. "But- but you say you've only been taught a bit of medicine and illness! That's advanced anatomy studies."

"Where I come from, it was standard to be taught that," I said, leaving it at that when Merlin returned with a full bucket of water.

Gaius shrugged and took a cloth, then wet it and placed it on my forehead, telling me, "You need to rest. I'll give you something to sleep and something for the fever."

I rolled my eyes, annoyed. I was pretty sure that ingesting medicine from the fifth century was not good for my body, especially when I was sick. Plus, I knew that my immune system would fight it off by itself. "Really, Gaius, I don't need any medicine," I protested. I sat up on the cot and swung my legs off, as if to prove that I wasn't too weak to stand.

"Woah, woah, woah! What do you think you're doing?" Merlin squeaked; there was honestly no other word for it. I stood up anyways.

"I'm  _standing,_ Merlin. I'm not an invalid."

Gaius just looked me up and down, mouth once again agape. "But you've got a high fever! You shouldn't even be conscious!"

"Well, I'm a healthy person, I guess." Then I made a point of yawning and stretching my arms. "I'm really tired. I've been on a long voyage."

"Oh! Right! Well, Gaius, can Aneeka stay here for a few days? She's come a long way from home, and she's ill," Merlin asked his great-uncle, already edging towards his room.

"Alright. She can stay after she's well again, too, if she wants to. She could learn more about medicine and science," Gaius offered.

"Thank you, Gaius. Of course I'll stay. I've always wanted to be a scientist or a physician when I grow up," I grinned.

Gaius looked impressed and Merlin gestured to his room. "There's a bed in there. Feel free to make yourself at home."

"But isn't that your room?" I asked innocently.

"How do you know that?" Merlin answered suspiciously.

"I already told you, Merlin. Remember?" I replied, thinking in my head,  _I'm from the future,_ very strongly, so the thought would reach his mind. Surprisingly, it did, as the warlock's eyes widened slightly.

And with that, I turned around and headed into the room I would be spending quite a lot of time in, thinking,  _Maybe this won't be so bad after all._


	4. Chapter 4

_If I ever again say that something won't be too bad before it actually starts, someone should slap me upside the head,_ I thought sourly as I shifted position yet again on the lumpy and hard cot. It had been a few good hours since me and Merlin had gone to bed, him laying on his own bed, sleeping peacefully, while I was stuck on the bed from hell in the corner of his room. I was still fully dressed, since all the clothing I owned was the ones on my back. You'd think that Borden would've come by now, but apparently he was waiting until it was  _really_ dark. As in,  _midnight_ dark.

Just as I was having this thought, Gaius' scratching of his quill on parchment stopped abruptly when someone knocked on the door. I heard Merlin jerk awake with a noisy inhale and I whispered, "Shh! Be  _quiet!_ "

He gave me a look and crept to the door to spy on whoever was visiting Gaius at this late hour. I gratefully hopped off my cot and crouched with him next to the door. Merlin glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, wondering what I was doing, but in the end he just shrugged and continued to watch the scene.

I pressed an ear to door and heard voices, one I distinguished to be Gaius' gravelly one, while the other was Borden's arrogant tone. "You have a nerve coming back here. You left me in a lot of trouble," Gaius admonished Borden.

Borden spoke next. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry about that." I fought back a snort. He wasn't  _sorry._ "What can I say? Execution... didn't really appeal to me. Don't pretend you supported Uther."

I saw Merlin's eyes widening more and more as the conversation got more revealing. "Tell me why you are here," Gaius said firmly, clearly done with pleasantries.

I then frowned at Borden's following rude comment. "Save your eyesight, Gaius. It's the Triskelion of Ashkanar."

"You are sure?" Gaius asked doubtfully.

"I'm certain," Borden answered confidently.

"Let me see." I knew that now he was examining the Triskelion. "It's in a druid tongue. The bind runes are in threes. That's rare."

Borden said, "Oh, I can save you the trouble. They guide the bearer to the Tomb of Ashkanar. Yes, we both know the legend. We both know what he hid there."

Gaius sighed and replied, "A dragon's egg, and you have come to steal it."

Merlin gasped quietly, but I put a finger to my lips and kept trying to hear their conversation through the door, just like Merlin was trying to see what they were doing.

"I wouldn't say 'steal'," Borden said deviously, but me, Gaius and probably even  _Merlin_ knew that he meant to do exactly that.

"You're forgetting one thing, you're missing a part of the Triskelion."

"Oh, no. I know where that bit is," Borden declared in that cocky tone of his. I had never liked this guy when I had seen this episode.

"Where?" Gaius asked him.

"In the vaults... beneath your feet," Borden responded, and me and Merlin slowly looked down at our feet, to the floor where, God knows how many floors down, the final third of the Triskelion of Ashkanar lay.

"In Camelot?" Gaius once again asked, this time incredulously.

"Where it has lain safe and secure for the last four hundred years."

"And you want me to help you to get it." It wasn't a question.

"We could bring this noble creature back to life," Borden continued in a slightly quieter voice, obviously trying to recruit Gaius to his side.

There was a pause, then Gaius made his mind up. "I want no part of your plan."

Merlin's eyes widened next to me at hearing his mentor's vehement refusal to help hatch what could be Kilgharrah's saving grace. He looked at me indignantly but I just shushed him again and waved my arms placatingly.

"You don't want to release the last living dragon?" Borden asked, still trying to convince Gaius.

"The old ways should be left to die," Gaius confirmed firmly.

Borden exclaimed, "Well, that's not what you taught me!"

"It's what I feel now. I believe in the king that Arthur will become and the future he will build." Oh, Gaius... He was always so loyal.

"Think about it."

"I've given you my answer. Now I think you should leave Camelot. Sooner rather than later. Arthur may not be his father, but is no friend of the old ways."

I heard the door open and Borden's parting statement of, "You'll find me in the tavern in the lower town. Take your time. Gaius, I know I caused you trouble before, but I'm a changed man, believe me."  _Yeah right,_ I thought.

Borden finally left and Merlin creaked open his door to talk to Gaius; I immediately followed him. "Who was that?" he asked Gaius, coming down the stairs.

Gaius glanced at us, one eyebrow still raised, and replied, "Oh, doesn't matter."

"Gaius." Clearly, Gaius wasn't successfully waving Merlin off. I glanced between Merlin's determined expression and Gaius' resigned one.

The old man sighed and admitted, "He was a pupil. His name is Julius Borden."

"Why won't you help him?" Merlin asked as soon as he was finished. There was a pause, and when Gaius did nothing but look at Merlin exasperatedly, Merlin continued, "This is our one chance of saving the dragons, of helping Kilgharrah preserve his kind."

The earnest look of Merlin's was not working on Gaius, however. "Borden is not a man to be trusted."

"You don't think the Triskelion is real?" Merlin asked, confused. And he had the right to be. Gaius  _had_ just seen two thirds of the Triskelion with his own eyes.

"That I have no doubt," Gaius confessed quietly.

"Then  _what?_ " Merlin demanded angrily. I could feel his frustration building up, making the air in the dusty room thicker and thicker.

Gaius looked up at Merlin and me (who had remained silent during the conversation) from his fiddling with a jar on one of the tables. "His motives, Merlin. Even as a young man he was prone to dishonesty. Who knows what path he is on now."

Merlin's eyes were beginning to get wet. "You want the egg to remain lost forever," he accused fiercely.

"I don't want it to get into Borden's hands!" Gaius yelled. Then he glanced at me, who's face, I'm sure, showed unease from the conflict, and remarked in a quieter voice, " The Tomb of Ashkenar has lain untouched for more than four hundred years. It is my belief it should remain that way Now let's get some sleep." Here, he walked away from us, back turned. "We've got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

I turned to Merlin, brows raised, and observed his betrayed and teary expression. He watched Gaius like he'd just kicked his puppy. Gaius, seeming to sense this, turned and raised one of his coarse white eyebrows in his signature look. We conceded and headed back to Merlin's - or should I say,  _our_ \- room. Merlin fell onto his bed while I sat on my cot, still watching him.

Merlin stayed in the same position (lying flat on his back) for a minute, before he sat up and straightened his posture. He was going to do something, probably something  _rash,_ knowing him. I sighed and asked, "What are you going to do?"

He looked over his shoulder at me, considerate-like, then answered, "I'm going out," before getting up and searching for something in a small pile of clothes.

"No, you're sneaking out to see Kilgharrah." It was a statement, not a question.

Merlin stopped his quest for a reasonably clean shirt and stared at me, astonished. "How did you know that?"

"Future, remember?" I shot back.

Merlin stood to his full height and regarded me curiously. "Yeah, but you said that there are only  _legends_ of me and Arthur in the future. Do legends detail every moment of my every day?"

Damn him and his logic. "It doesn't matter. What matters, is that you're going anyway, aren't you?"

"Yes, but you can't come." Yes! Successful subject change! But at the same time, I was disappointed.

"Aw! But why?" I asked, pouting like a little kid.

"Aneeka, it's the middle of the night; I don't know how dangerous the land is at night in the future, but here who knows what could be out and about." I scoffed. He didn't even know the  _half_ of it yet - wait until Arthur died and Merlin became a mailman in the 21st century. "Plus, you should get some rest. You're still ill," he added.

I sighed, but got an evil idea. "Alright," I conceded in a sing-song tone. "But if you go without me, I'll wake up Gaius and tell him where you're going."

Merlin's eyes nearly popped out at that. "Aneeka!" he admonished in a harsh whisper. "That's not fair!"

"Too bad for you then! I guess you'll have to take me with you," I retorted in a sly tone.

Merlin huffed, then yielded, "Fine. But just this one time!"

I grinned and turned my back so he could change. When he announced quietly that he was ready, I turned back and followed him out the door. We stealthily crept across the room, stealing cautious glances at Gaius' sleeping form all the while. When we got to the door, Merlin grabbed his coat and sent a final peek at his mentor before leaving the room. I followed quickly without a backward glance.

As soon as we were outside, Merlin handed to coat to me, which I was too surprised to refuse. It was slightly big on me, but warm enough to block the nightly chill of the air. Merlin led me into shadows, out of sight of any guards, and we headed out of Camelot and into the forest. On the way towards a big clearing, Merlin asked me, "Hey, do you remember when I was introducing you to Gaius and you spoke in my mind?" I nodded. "How did you do that? Do you have magic too?"

I frowned. I had assumed that if I thought a thought in my head strongly enough, Merlin would hear it because he was the most powerful warlock to ever exist. Was there another reason for my apparent telepathy? I shrugged at Merlin, who's brows furrowed in reflection, but he said no more.

The moon shone down as we arrived in the clearing and Merlin called out for Kilgharrah in Dragon tongue. Only a minute passed before the Great Dragon landed with a lot of wind pushing my hair back and rustling the leaves from the flapping of his powerful wings

When he had landed, Merlin stepped up to him and announced, "Kilgharrah, I have great news. I know where to find a lost dragon egg!" The dragon cocked his head and Merlin explained what we head heard from Gaius' and Borden's conversation.

"I never dared dream of such a moment, Merlin," Kilgharrah declared when Merlin had finally finished his tale. "But who's your friend?" He gestured with his head to me, standing behind Merlin. You know, he really was huge! Taller than a two-story house, actually.

Merlin finally remembered me in his excitement and said, "Oh! I forgot! This is a girl I met today in Camelot. Her name is Aneeka. She saw me use magic, but she didn't expose me. She's staying with me and Gaius so she can become his apprentice. Aneeka says that she's from the future."

Kilgharrah looked at me as if in contemplation, then asked, "Is that so? How old is she?"

"She's only fifteen," Merlin replied, eyeing me too. I raised a brow, uncomfortable with all the staring, and Merlin stopped and looked away. But the Great Dragon continued, gazing at me as if seeing into my soul.

 _Did you tell him that you're from a different universe?_ he asked me in my head.

I mentally scoffed and answered,  _I'm not that stupid._

_It is not necessary to take that tone with me, young one. It is imperative that you do not tell Merlin of your origins._

_Fine, I won't. I promise._ Then I had an idea.  _Kilgharrah, how are we having this conversation?_

The dragon chuckled in my mind.  _When you arrived in this world, I gave you the gift of telepathy to ease your destiny. That is how we had our earlier conversation when you first arrived._

I scowled, disliking the fact that he had somehow messed with my head.  _But does that mean that I can read other people's thoughts? And who can I communicate with? Only other people who have the gift, or only people with magic, or everybody else?_

_One question at a time, Aneeka. You can't read others' thoughts, but you can communicate telepathically with people who have magic. You, however, do not have magic._

_O-Okay, then. Thanks, I guess._ I was kind of shell-shocked at this new knowledge. I'm a telepath? This was news to me.

I then caught sight of Merlin, who had been watching the two of us staring deeply at each other uncertainly. Seeing my attention on him, he stated, "You two are being quite silent. Is there something I should know?"

I looked to Kilgharrah, who said mentally,  _Tell him when you get back_.

I nodded and looked back to Merlin, who was watching the exchange with interest. But he was distracted by Kilgharrah's next words. "Back to other matters. Until now, I believed the egg would never be found, that I would be the last of my kind."

"So the legend is true," Merlin deduced, nodding and smiling joyfully.

"This is a chance in a thousand, Merlin. You must retrieve the egg."

Merlin looked sheepish all of a sudden. "I know," he admitted.

"Then what is the matter?" the Great Dragon asked, brows furrowing.

"Gaius has forbidden it," I piped up. Merlin twisted around and glared at me.

"Merlin! You are a dragon lord!" Kilgharrah insisted, stomping one of his immense clawed feet a little. "It is a gift passed down from your father," he said in a quieter voice. "He gave up everything in his life to save me. What do you think he would say? The egg harbours the last of my kind. I beg you, Merlin. In your father's name, promise me that you will do everything in your power to rescue it."

Merlin straightened his shoulders and replied solemnly, "You have my promise."

 _And so it begins,_ I thought, a feeling of foreboding invading the atmosphere.


	5. Chapter 5

After saying goodbye to Kilgharrah, scurrying back to the castle and sneaking past a thankfully-still-sleeping Gaius, me and Merlin finally arrived in his - _our_ \- room. He plopped down, tired, onto his bed and I reluctantly sank down onto my cot, relieved that we hadn't gotten caught.

Merlin looked like he was already calculating how to go behind Gaius' and Arthur's backs and somehow steal a dragon egg from under Borden's nose and get it to Kilgharrah. I interrupted his contemplation with a revelation that I knew would get his attention.

"I have telepathy," I declared, forgetting for a moment that we weren't alone and that there was a sleeping Gaius in the next room.

"Shh!" Merlin shushed me frantically, and we both held our breaths and listened to Gaius snort and turn over in his bed before settling down again. " _What_ did you just say?" he whispered incredulously.

"I said, I have telepathy. You know, like I can communicate with people who have magic."

"Where did this come from?" Merlin whisper-yelled. He looked almost comically astonished.

"I think Kilgharrah gave it to me when I entered this land. I don't know why," I rushed to add the last bit before Merlin started asking questions I couldn't answer.

"Yes, well, Kilgharrah does strange things sometimes, often with no obvious explication," Merlin mused, elbows on his knees as he sat on the edge of his bed. After a pause, he looked up at me again. "We cannot tell Gaius or anyone else your true origin or your new-found powers. I fear that if we were to tell Gaius, his heart would stop."

"Good idea," I admitted. "So, what do you plan on doing about the dragon egg?" I asked. I already knew his plan, but I wanted to see if my arrival in Camelot had changed anything.

"Well, I was just thinking of going to see that Borden fellow in the inn he's staying at in the lower town. Maybe he'd let me come along. I could tell Gaius and Arthur that I was going to visit my mother back home."

"Hmmm..." I hummed thoughtfully. "That's actually a good plan." I grinned. "But you forgot one thing."

"What's that?" Merlin questioned curiously.

"Me."

" _You?_ "

"Yeah, me. I'm coming with you."

"Oh, no you're not!" he protested, still somehow managing to never raise his voice above a whisper. "Tonight was the first and last time, I said! Plus, you're still sick!"

"But I feel fine!" I declared. And it was true. The bit of rest I'd gotten had cured me, at least temporarily, of whatever illness I seemed to have gotten shortly after landing in Camelot.

"Well... you shouldn't! It's utterly ridiculous! You should still be in bed, with a bad fever and the chills! But you're up and about..." he trailed off, confused.

I grinned at him. "Well, most people from the 21st century have a habit of fighting off simple illnesses. Our bodies are used to it. Although, you could argue that the medical facilities have gotten better..." I stopped talking when I noticed that I was only baffling Merlin even more. "Anyways, we'd better get some sleep. What is it, two in the morning? We've got important things to do tomorrow."

"Hey! I said, you're _not_ coming!" came the indignant reply to my nonchalant reminder that I still intended on accompanying him the next day.

"And I said, I _am_ coming, even if I have to secretly follow you there." Merlin huffed and pouted, but I wasn't having it. With a quiet bid of "Good night", I curled into myself onto the cot, trying to get warm under the blanket and finally, after one of the oddest days of my life, fell deeply asleep.

* * *

The first thing that I became aware of was the low hum of people walking around and talking as they started a new day just outside the window. I cracked my eyes open, then groaned and shut them as exhaustion swept over me, begging me to succumb to the heavy fog of sleep I could still feel lingering in my head. However, I forced myself to get up; too bad that the cot was narrow enough that I ended up rolling off of it and landing on the floor with a curse and a _thud._ Still swearing, I wrapped the blanket around me and rubbed the crusts out of the corners of my eyes, squinting against the sun beams that illuminated the dust swirling in the disturbed air of Merlin's room. Honestly, did he _ever_ clean?

"Morning, sleepy-head." Well, speak of the devil. Merlin was sitting, already fully dressed, on his bed, watching me.

"What time is it?" I asked irascibly. "The crack of dawn?"

He chuckled. "Do people in the future get up really late or something? It's already 8 in the morning."

" _Already,_ he says," I muttered grumpily to myself. Louder, I asked, "Where's the bathroom?"

"The what? Oh, do you mean you need to relieve yourself?"

" _Relieve myself._ Honestly, this is so damn archaic." As you have probably already noticed, I am definitely _not_ a morning person.

Merlin just rolled his eyes. "There's a chamber pot in the corner there," he said, pointing to one spot in his room. "I'll wait outside."

And so I began my first full day in Camelot peeing into a clay pot, without any proper toilet paper, swearing vilely the whole time while listening to Merlin, that smug idiot, laughing at me outside the door.

* * *

About half an hour later, dressed (Merlin had somehow acquired some boy's clothes for me, as I flat-out refused to wear a dress, so I was thrilled for once), fed and washed, we set out for the inn in the lower town where I'd seen Borden enter to stay while he took care of his underhanded business. When we arrived, Merlin abruptly turned around and ordered, "Okay, you stay here and wait outside while I go in and talk to him."

I snorted inelegantly (although, now that I think about it, can a snort even be elegant?) and replied, "No way in hell. I'm coming in there with you."

"Damn it, Aneeka!" Merlin exclaimed. My eyebrows rose; this was one of the first times that he'd called me by my name. "I think Gaius is right, at least about Borden's character. He doesn't seem all that safe, so you're staying here."

"HA!" People around us turned, startled, and stared at the commotion, but I paid them no heed, ignoring the Merlin's anxious glare at me to shut up. "Well, I don't know how it is in the 5th century, buddy, but you're not making me into some 'damsel in distress'. I'd rather eat a spider," I spat vehemently. "Alive," I added, to make sure he knew that I was serious.

Merlin's face briefly scrunched up in disgust, but he finally acquiesced and led me inside the tavern, and the villagers shrugged and continued to go about their daily business. I tucked my hair into my bandanna again, making sure it didn't stick out too much. I was wearing a loose shirt, so no one could tell that I was a girl in _that_ aspect, and I've always had a face that could go either way, so I tried not to be too worried. Even though I didn't even _have_ to pretend to be a boy, it was still oddly exciting. Besides, everyone knows that in this time period, only the boys ever get to have any real fun.

Merlin quietly asked the barkeep where Borden was staying and after we received the gruff response of, "First door on the right at the top of the stairs," we headed up. I looked at the door apprehensively, wondering if the man had heard our footsteps yet and was already hiding behind the door with a dagger. Boy, was the guy _paranoid._

Merlin gave me a gesture to stay behind, and for once, I obeyed. I didn't fancy getting my throat slit by a crazy dragon-egg-thief because he felt outnumbered by two "boys". I watched with bated breath as Merlin slowly creaked open the door, and I knew that he was staring at the lump on the bed that was "Borden", while he was about to get jumped by the real one. Sure enough, I heard a crash and Merlin's startled gasp as Borden himself jumped out from behind the door and pinned him to the wall, a dagger at his throat.

"What do you want?" Borden demanded, breathing fast.

Merlin tried to placate him enough to let go of him. "To help you."

"Who are you?"

"A friend of Gaius. I heard what you told him. I want to see a dragon's egg. I want to come with you," Merlin replied in a rush of words.

There was a pause, then, "Where's the other one?"

"What?" Merlin asked, probably trying his best to look confused. Borden meant me. He'd heard _two_ sets of footsteps coming up. but only one person had entered his room.

"I heard two people come up. Where's your friend?"

I stepped out of the shadows behind Merlin, figuring that I'd better introduce myself now instead of later when they were sneaking into the castle for the last third of the Triskelion. "I'm right here. Name's Esmond." I came up with the first Old English boy's name that I could come up with. Speaking of which, was I speaking Old English now? _Better investigate that later,_ I concluded, still maintaining eye contact with Borden.

He looked me up and down. "Did he send you two?" Borden asked, a suspicious gleam in his eyes.

"No," Merlin answered before I could open my mouth.

"No?" Borden asked in reply, brows raised sardonically. He let go of Merlin and pushed us out the door roughly. "Then get out."

Merlin tried a different approach. "Please, I know everything about dragons. I've read everything... !" I sighed, resisting the urge to slap my forehead with my hand. All this begging was doing was making him sound like a desperate 10-year-old.

Borden's face was closed off. "Not interested. Go away." He shoved Merlin even more out the door, causing him to nearly collide with me.

Merlin decided to try one more tactic. "Alright, but you won't get into the vaults without us."

The man scoffed, then replied, as if patronizing us, "And how's two boys like you gonna help?"

Merlin drew himself up self-importantly. "Because I'm the personal servant of King Arthur."

Borden, of course, lost his patronizing expression and gained a grudgingly impressed look, but he still glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "And what about him?"

Merlin started to try to invent something that I was useful for, but I beat him to it. "I can see through time." After all, in this dimension, it was true.

"What?" was all the man could manage to say. After a pause, in which I regarded him with the most serious expression I could muster, he continued, "You're not serious."

"I am. It is a peculiar brand of magic that I picked up before coming to Camelot, but it will serve us well." Merlin was looking at me now, shaking his head very slightly, so as to not attract Borden's attention, but still giving me a reproachful look. He obviously didn't approve.

"Alright. Say I believe you. Can you prove it?" Borden seemed almost gleeful now, probably hoping to catch me lying. I noticed Merlin stiffen in my peripheral vision, but kept my gaze on Borden to distract him.

"Yes. You did visit the druids a few days ago, did you not? They had the second third of the Triskelion locked in a wooden box, of which you stole the key, opened it and stole the piece. The druids seemed, at first, to be sleeping, but when you turned around, they were all awake and staring at you, so you ran. But you didn't make it far; they had you surrounded, so you grabbed a nearby druid and held him at dagger point to get your way." I had started speaking slowly at first, but I picked up speed as I continued. I was on a roll. "Iseldir, their leader, said that it's not worth anyone's life, but you replied that it cost you twenty years of your's. Iseldir didn't believe that you would ever find the final third of the Triskelion, that it was useless, but you already knew where it was. You then shoved the druid back at the group, jumped off a nearby cliff and saved yourself by stabbing the ground on the other side of the gap with your dagger. You then rode to Camelot on a dark brown horse." I wrinkled my nose. "You're still wearing the same clothes that you arrived in Camelot with."

Needless to say, Borden and even _Merlin_ were both gaping at me, shocked that I could provide such detail in my vision. I smirked when Borden simply declared, "You have a deal. Meet me at nightfall outside the tunnel entrance."

* * *

After thanking Borden, we walked out, me still grinning from taking the man down a notch and Merlin still shaking his head incredulously. Once we had reached a relatively empty side street, he commented, "You know, you're crazy."

I laughed easily. "Really? What makes you say that?"

"I can't believe you stepped forward like that. You'e lucky that it worked."

"It's not luck. I knew exactly what Borden was doing a few days ago, and all I did was tell him."

"Yes, but _how_ did you know? You described the scene with perfect detail; you didn't seem to miss a thing! If the legends are mainly about me and Arthur, then how would you know so much about Borden's side trip? He wasn't even in Camelot; I didn't even know of him before last night!" Merlin exclaimed, looking quite bewildered.

I didn't know how to explain the concept of the television show to him yet, let alone the concept of me living in a different dimension where I'm pretty sure he never existed in the first place, so I kept quiet for moment. Finally, I replied, "Never mind that, Merlin. Don't ask me questions I can't answer, and I won't lie to you. Alright?"

Merlin didn't look impressed, but I guess he accepted my answer for now. "Fine. But Aneeka, we still have the matter of stealing the key to the tunnel from Arthur. I'm his manservant; can you imagine what would happen if I got caught?" His brow furrowed anxiously and he bit his lip.

"Aw, come on, Merlin. Don't worry about that. I've already got a few good ideas about how to get the key, and I think you'll especially like one of them."

When I explained the one where he used his magic to make Arthur's pants fall down, Merlin's mirthful laugh rang through the street.


	6. Chapter 6

We arrived back at the castle some time later, Merlin's face still flushed from laughter. As soon as we got to Merlin's room (and, I guess, _my_ room as well), we started planning.

"Okay, how am I going to steal the key off of Arthur?" Merlin asked me, pacing the floor.

"Just steal it while he's asleep," I suggested. "You could even go now, if Arthur is still in bed."

Merlin straightened a bit in realization. "He _is,_ " he muttered, and with that, he ran out of the room, slamming the door to Gaius' rooms a couple of seconds later.

I chuckled and went to Gaius, who had said that he had some medicine delivery jobs for me if I'd accept half pay since he didn't have enough to pay me as much as Merlin. I'd said that I didn't care; it's not like I was going to go on shopping sprees in the nonexistent Camelot Mall, anyway.

* * *

After several deliveries, I ran into Merlin, who looks quite harassed as he brought an armful of clean laundry back to Arthur's chambers.

"How'd it go? Did you get it?" I whispered to him as I caught up to him with a tonic for the Lady Athela. Though, I already knew that he hadn't.

"No," he grumbled. "I tried, but he woke up and I had to make up some excuse about looking for woodworm."

I chuckled to myself. "Well, why don't you try to _other_ plan this afternoon whilst Arthur is planning in the Throne room with his counsellors? That'd be pretty funny."

Merlin gained a mischievous light in his eyes and nodded eagerly as we parted ways. _Uh-oh,_ I thought. _Watch out, Arthur._

* * *

Later that day, in the evening, in fact, I saw Merlin again in Gaius' rooms after I'd finished all of my deliveries and Merlin had successfully and quite _hilariously_ retrieved the key from Arthur's belt that afternoon. He recounted the tale to me as we ate dinner; Gaius was out diagnosing a patient. After much laughter at the King's expense, we went to meet Borden.

* * *

"I'm beginning to like you, Merlin," said Borden as Merlin opened the door to the tunnel leading outside of the castle's outer wall. I waited behind Merlin as the warlock looked both ways before allowing Borden to enter and closing the door quietly. I held a torch in my hand, slightly nervous, since I'd never held fire like this before, but a bit excited. Some action was finally getting done!

Borden barely spared me a glance as he passed me and followed Merlin to the vaults, me handing the torch to him so he could light the way. We went down some stairs together, but as soon as we came to a corner, Merlin announced, "This is as far as I go." He handed the overlarge key to Borden, adding, "Now, this key opens the last gate. But you have to get past the guards."

Borden took the key, a deathly serious look on his face as he took out a small sword. "That won't be a problem."

We watched as he rounded the corner, Merlin still holding the torch. I remarked in a hushed voice, "I really don't like that guy."

Merlin snickered but shushed me all the same, glancing anxiously towards where I knew the guards were. Some _thumps_ of bodies hitting the floor later, Borden returned with the Triskelion completed. Right about now, we should be hearing some guards looking for Borden, but Merlin said nothing. I closed my eyes instinctively and listened hard... there it was! A voice said from down the tunnel, "To the right." I opened my eyes and got the other two's attention by snapping my fingers.

"Guards are coming," I explained in response to Merlin's questioning look and Borden's irritated one. I sneered at the latter, not trusting him a bit. I knew that he was planning to knock us out and hopefully get us in trouble when we'd be found unconscious, just outside the castle wall, with a key stolen from the King himself.

"Follow me," Merlin ordered, and we did, all the way back to the tunnel door leading outside. However, we heard guards overhead and pressed ourselves against the wall, holding our breaths. Finally, they passed and I sighed with relief. We'd done it!

Borden, the slime, glanced our way and declared, "Thanks."

"Anytime," Merlin gasped as he eyed the pass overhead for anymore guards on patrol.

Borden returned the key back to Merlin, who closed the door and made to lock it. He was interrupted by Borden. "Tell me, Merlin, Esmond; would you say you're good liars?"

Merlin shrugged innocently. "I don't know. If I need to be."

Borden nodded and I saw his expression change. As he raised his hand to knock out Merlin, I lifted my leg and kicked him in the crotch. He yelped out of surprise and pain, in that order, and I stood in front of Merlin protectively. "Go," I ordered, a small snarl on my face. He glowered at me and raised his weapon, but I remained unfazed (on the outside, at least). "We'll cover for you, Borden. Go."

I sensed Merlin's stiff form behind me, ready to do magic to protect us, but Borden back down. "You'd better be good liars, 'cause you'll need to be." And with that, he left, glancing around first for any watchers and/or eavesdroppers.

Merlin let out a breath as I relaxed, heart pumping fast. "Are you crazy?" he asked me, watching Borden creep away, out of earshot.

"He was going to knock us out and leave us to be found unconscious, just outside the castle wall, with a key stolen from the _King,_ Merlin."

There was silence, then, "Oh. Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

* * *

The next morning, during my delivery duties, the warning bells rung. They had discovered that the vaults had been broken into. I rushed back to Gaius' rooms, forgetting my delivery for the moment, and met the man himself as he closed the door, having heard the bells and going to investigate.

"Gaius! What is that?"

"The warning bells, my dear. Something must've happened," he replied, worried.

"Can I come?" I inquired.

"Hmm.. I don't know, Aneeka. Whenever there's a crisis, only the King and his closest counsellors or servants would be allowed in the area of the emergency."

"Aw, c'mon, Gaius! You could just say that I'm your new apprentice now that Merlin's too busy with his manservant duties, or something. And that I come from a magical background like you, so I'd have a good reason to be present. Oh, and say that my name is _Esmond,_ not Aneeka. I'm pretending to be a boy."

Gaius sent me his trademarked Eyebrows of Doom look, but I gave him my best wide-eyed puppy-dog look and he acquiesced reluctantly. "Besides," he admitted. "I _do_ need a new apprentice, what with that crazy boy running around for Arthur these days."

* * *

We met Merlin and Arthur on the way there, who officially informed us about the incident in the vaults. Turned out, I'd been right in my assumption. Merlin threw me a questioning look that seemed to say, _What the hell are_ you _doing here?_ but I shook my head and whispered, "Just follow Gaius' and my lead."

Arthur, of course, noticed my presence right away and demanded Gaius about it. The healer and advisor to the King, in response, told a bold-faced lie: that my name was Esmond and that I'm his new apprentice since Merlin is too busy with his duties as a manservant these days; also, that I was the apprentice to a witch hunter, travelling far and wide before arriving in Camelot, looking for a more peaceful job.

Merlin was trying not to gape at his mentor as Arthur took it all in and I tried to look more like a servant. The King's gaze turned on me, and I bowed my head slightly. "Hmm. You're very young to be a witch hunter's apprentice," he mused skeptically.

"Yes, King Arthur, but my family needed money, and so I tried to find money anywhere that I could get it." Arthur cocked his head a bit at me calling him "King Arthur" instead of "sire", which is what is expected of servants in this time period in Camelot, but I held his gaze.

At last, he shrugged and we continued on our way. In the vaults, Agravaine and some guards were already there, but he sent them away when he caught sight of us. There was a brief question period about me, but Arthur explained for me and Agravaine eyed me suspiciously before deciding to pretend to ignore me and disclose what seemed to have happened last night in more detail. "The lock hasn't been damaged, which would suggest whoever it was had a key," he finished.

"Strange," muttered Gaius.

Arthur walked around the vault, finally coming to a stop and opening an ornate box with blue velvet lining the inside. "Of all these treasures, this is all they were interested in. What was in here?"

Gaius piped up again. "I believe, Sire, one third of a Triskelion, a type of key" Arthur glanced back at him in surprise, then went back to examining the empty box. "A key that, according to legend, opens the ancient Tomb of Ashkanar." Now Gaius stared at Merlin and I, probably guessing that we had something to do with it. Merlin's face remained stony.

Arthur raised his head in sudden realization. "I remember my father talk of such a tomb. It contained a dragon's egg."

"It has been said," Gaius remarked, nodding.

The King narrowed his eyes. "You don't believe it to be true?"

"Well, it is possible, Sire. The wealth and wisdom of Ashkanar are without equal," Gaius conceded.

Agravaine, that untrustworthy git, spoke up seriously, "Is the egg still there?"

"I can't be certain. But, to my knowledge, no one has disturbed the tomb for more than four hundred years," Gaius replied, looking at us accusingly again.

Arthur remarked, "But with this Triskelion, someone could."

"Sire, a dragon's egg can live for a thousand years." Arthur turned a bit to face his uncle. "Even today, it could still hatch, and another dragon would be born into this world," Agravaine mentioned.

Of course, the King concluded, "So, all my father's work to rid the world of these monsters would be undone."

"That must be our fear."

Gaius was staring at us again, and Merlin finally got uncomfortable and glanced away to watch Arthur and listen to his next words. "Then we have no choice. We must hunt down this intruder, destroy the egg." And with that, the King marched out of the vaults, Agravaine following him.

* * *

Gaius was on us before Merlin could even close the door. "How could you be so stupid!? What were you thinking!?" he exclaimed, thoroughly pissed off.

"I am a dragon lord. It is my sacred duty to protect the last of the dragons," Merlin replied, trying to make him understand. I stayed back, watching the exchange.

"The tomb could've remained closed for another four hundred years and the egg would've been completely safe! Now Arthur's riding out intent on destroying it!" Merlin gulped at the second sentence, but kept his face expressionless.

"We have to hope that Borden gets there first."

"Oh! You trust Borden? And you brought _Aneeka_ with you to see that man? What kind of an example are you giving her?" Gaius gestured wildly at me, and I put my best innocent face on when they both glanced at me.

"Gaius, it's not like that. Borden cares for the dragon too."

Gaius's scoff demonstrated his thoughts on that very clearly. "You really think he's going to release that dragon?" I fear to think what he intends for the poor creature." He walked away a bit, then turned back and yelled, "Why couldn't you leave things alone?!"

Merlin flinched, looking down, but I could feel he didn't 100% regret what he'd done. I agreed with him. Maybe it'd been ill-advised, but it kinda had to happen. Plus, you should never 100% regret anything. More fun that way. I grinned a little to myself, but stopped when Gaius exclaimed, "No foolish grinning!"

We both went to our respective beds, listening to Gaius putter about all night, agitated. I felt nervous yet excited for tomorrow. Maybe they'd let me come with them to retrieve the dragon egg. I could see a dragon hatching first-hand! With that, I fell asleep with a small smile on my face.

* * *

The next morning, me and Merlin were outside in front of the castle when Arthur called to his manservant impatiently, "Hurry up, Merlin!" The King glanced to me and asked bluntly, "You! Do you have any experience with dragons?"

I stopped walking, a bit shocked that he even remembered my existence. "Y-Yes, a few times," I lied through my teeth. I spotted Merlin eye me, amused, out of the corner of my eye, but I ignored him and continued to stare Arthur in the eyes, hoping against hope that he'd believe me.

Arthur cocked his head, staring down at me from his horse, but he eventually conceded. "Alright then. You may come along as well. I may need your knowledge." And with that, he led the way, the knights riding out behind him already. Merlin helped me mount a horse, then mounted his and we joined them. I winced at the constant up and down of riding a horse, but I'd ridden before and I knew what I was doing. Sort of.

* * *

We rode for about an hour, following Borden's tracks out into the rolling hills that separated one forest from another.

"Same hoof tracks. We must be closing on him," Arthur announced, looking at the ground.

"Look," Merlin pointed out, indicating a column of smoke some distance away in the next forest. "He made camp."

Arthur again lead the way with Merlin right behind him and me right behind Merlin, a bit nervous that all the jostling from the horse would expose my disguise as a boy. If I was outed as a girl, they'd never have let me come along.

Several minutes later, we finally got to the old campfire, with the ashes still smoldering in the fire site.

Arthur gingerly felt the ashes, pronouncing, "It's still warm," and looking around at our surroundings.

Elyan added, "He can't have more than a few hours' lead on us." They sounded almost gleeful, and it disturbed me. I hoped that one day they'd change their minds about dragons and magic.

"We need to keep moving." And we did. For quite a while, until the white sky got darker. Hour by hour, I could feel Merlin becoming more and more desperate, worry for the dragon egg eating him from the inside out, and it started to show on the outside too. Sweat made his face shiny and dirt clung to his pores. His hair looked visibly greasy. Of course, everyone else looked like that too, after a long day of practically nonstop riding in the wild. Finally, at a hillside, Arthur dismounted to check the tracks we'd been following.

He didn't look very happy. "Deer tracks," he announced. Apparently, we'd been following an animal for some time.

"We lost him?" one of the knights, Leon, clarified.

Arthur looked grim. "It's getting too dark to see. We have to find somewhere to hole up for the night."

"But we're so close to him," Merlin protested, his eyes urgent.

"Unless you can see in the dark, Merlin, there's not much else we can do," the King scoffed.

We tied up the horses and settled down in a clearing, where Merlin got a fire and supper started from the supplies. When the meal was done, he started to serve it to each person, but of course, the knights thought it'd be a great opportunity to troll him.

"Whoa. I'm famished," Leon started, earning him more food from a begrudging Merlin. "Thank you," came the cheeky reply.

Merlin went on to serve Gwaine, then, as he was about to leave, the mischievous knight stopped him. "Ah, I'm hungry as a horse." Merlin served Gwaine some more, then me, and then he returned to the fire, crouching down to pour some food in his own plate. All the knights were grinning at their own joke, and I smirked, enjoying their sense of humor.

I looked to Arthur as I felt his amusement rising, and he decided to join in on the joke. "That's a point, Merlin, have you fed them?

Poor Merlin stopped what he was doing and turned to Arthur, asking incredulously, "What?"

"The horses."

"Well—"

"Come on, there must be starving," Arthur needled him, and I full on chuckled. The knights glanced at me, their grins wider.

"But—"

"On your toes," the King ordered.

I heard Merlin sigh a little, then he got to his feet and headed off to feed the horses. I kept quiet as the knights retrieved Merlin's plate and filled it with stew, but my back straightened upon seeing Merlin stop suddenly in the middle of the horses, looking around him like he knew someone was there, watching him. I felt a cold hand of unease creep up my spine at the looks he was giving the bushes, but I let myself be carried away by the snickering of the knights as they hid Merlin's plate and each finished their own.

After a while, Merlin returned from feeding the horses, only to be handed an empty plate by Gwaine. "Mm. That was lovely, Merlin. Thanks."

Percival copied him. "Er, I loved it."

"Me, too," Leon added, along with his own plate.

Arthur came up to him with the cooking pot, telling him, "If you're gonna wash those, wash this, too."

Merlin looked somewhat put out, but he responded, "Thanks," anyway.

Arthur looked down at the pot in Merlin's hands and grabbed the ladle. "Hang on, there's still a bit left." And he ate the rest of the stew right in front of Merlin. He hummed in approval of the, I have to say, fairly delicious stew.

"Good, was it?" Merlin asked, deadpan.

The King nodded. "Little bit salty, though."

Arthur patted Merlin on the arm and walked off, leaving Merlin to do the dishes and sulk. I covered up my smile with my sleeve.

Leon couldn't take it anymore and started laughing. "Merlin!" he called.

Merlin turned around and saw the grinning knight pull out the hidden plate.

"There's another plate here." We all laughed and gave him the plate, and Merlin couldn't help but laugh and join them.

* * *

Night fell and we all prepared for sleep. The knights and Arthur slept in a circle around the fire, while me and Merlin slept just outside the circle. I lay awake, having never fallen asleep in a forest before. Did you know that when you fall asleep in a new place, your brain is only half asleep as a survival technique? Maybe that's how I heard Merlin exhale suddenly, his sleep pattern of inhale-exhale disrupted. I couldn't hear who was talking to him in his head, but I heard him gasp and saw him stand up and walk away into the woods. After a second or so of deliberation, I got up and scrambled to follow him, stepping on every damn twig in the process and risking waking up Arthur or one of the knights.

"Where are you?" Merlin asked the voice in his head, but he asked it out loud. I shushed him, glancing back at our campsite, but he ignored me. It was almost like he wasn't aware of anything but that voice. We continued creeping through the woods, Merlin simply pushing away branches when they got in his way, uncaring of the noise it made. I stayed behind him, my only anchor in this unfamiliar surroundings in the middle of the night. I hoped that he knew the way back if need be.

Finally, we came upon a clearing with people wearing hooded cloaks in it. I hung back. "Whoa-kay, creepy strangers with hoods. I'll be back here." Merlin barely spared me a glance, his eyes only for the leader of the group, Iseldir, who lowered his hood. He'd been the one to summon Merlin here, I remembered. I sensed Merlin's wariness at the situation.

"Do not be afraid. We know your quest."

"How?" Merlin demanded.

"The man you seek also stole from us. He passed through these woods not three hours before you," Iseldir informed.

"Which way did he go?" Merlin asked, already getting ready to pursue him.

"To the east. But you must beware, Emrys. The legends tell a tale that only the druids know," the druid cautioned.

"What do they say?"

"Ashkanar was a wise man. He knew one day men would come seeking to disturb his rest. The Triskelion is not just a key. It is also a trap." I froze at the last word, looking between Iseldir and Merlin, who'd neared a bit, interest piqued.

"What do you mean? What kind of trap?"

"I do not know. But the legends are very clear, you must beware, Emrys," Iseldir replied, utterly calm.

Merlin glanced around at the circle of druids, and I felt how uncomfortable he felt, being surrounded by this strange people of the night, and how heavy he felt - heavy with the pressure to right his wrong, to protect the dragon, to stop Borden, to go against his own friend the King, to hide his very essence from Arthur. It was starting to take a toll on him, I could tell. Merlin was about to leave, but he was stopped by Iseldir.

"Emrys." Merlin stopped his exit. "There is one other thing the legends say. Only when the way ahead seems impossible... will you have found it." I shuddered when Iseldir turned and _looked_ at me. He had this uncanny way of looking at you, he would just stare, almost without blinking, straight into your eyes. Only your eyes. "And lastly, keep her close. She is a change. Whether that change be good or bad, _time_ will tell." Iseldir kept his unwavering gaze on me the whole time.

Merlin looked at me strangely, his brow furrowing in confusion and anxiety. But he only nodded to Iseldir and the other druids and left, taking me by the arm to guide me around loose stones and under hanging, scraggly branches. We left the circle of druids far behind, but the odd feeling I'd gotten in my spine when Merlin had sensed something while feeding the horses earlier never left, all the way until we got back to our camp. Arthur and the knights were still fast asleep, unaware that we'd ever left.

I shared a loaded glance with Merlin, unsure of how to describe what had just transpired, and it seemed he didn't know either. We nodded to each other and crept back under our blankets, resting up for the next adventure of tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning was a silent affair, as we all awoke, ate briefly, then followed the tracks to another campsite. The knights and Arthur had their swords out, creeping through the leaves. I followed more casually, knowing that Borden was not in his camp. And sure enough, it was abandoned.

"He must've left in the night," Arthur surmised.

"No horse tracks," Gwaine informed.

"He's covered them," Leon added. They both were out of breath, having streaked away from the camp to chase down any clues as to Borden's whereabouts.

Merlin looked really unimpressed, and getting more desperate by the minute. "We had him. We were so close." His tone was almost accusatory. But accusing the others, or himself?

He walked off eastwards, prompting Arthur to ask him, "Where are you going? We don't even know which way he went."

"He's heading east."

"How do you know that?" Arthur demanded, tone incredulous.

I felt Merlin's heart jump in his chest, panicked but trying not to show it. "Because I can sense it."

Rolling my eyes at such a paltry excuse, I heard Arthur scoff and say, "Sense is not a word I associate with you, Merlin."

Elyan called from a few feet away, "Hang on! He's right." He wast crouched down, staring at some horse dung.

Arthur looked comically surprised that Merlin was right about something. "He can't be."

"Well done, Merlin!" Gwaine praised, also surprised.

We left the campsite, following Borden trail to the east.

"You ever heard of the word 'sorry'?" Merlin asked, gloating.

Arthur replied without even looking at him. "No, is that another word you made up?"


	7. Chapter 7

We walked for a while, Elyan pointing out signs every now and then of Borden passing through here or adjusting our course slightly to continue to follow our quarry. Finally, we happened upon a cave with a creek and a rocky beach in front of it. I picked my way delicately across the rocks, watching Arthur for his reaction.

He gave up. "It's a dead end. That's it. Let's go back."

The others started to turn back, but Merlin refused to give up. "What about the cave?" he asked loudly, stopping their retreat. I stayed in the same position, facing the cave and watching it the events unfurl around me.

Arthur shook his head. "We're wasting our time."

"Arthur." Percival's voice stopped him again. The knight pointed down at a muddy footprint by the water. We all simultaneously looked up and at the cave, looking like a dark, gaping mouth. There was something about this area that gave me the creeps. I could feel everyone felt it too, Merlin especially. His blue eyes pierced the darkness there, and I could feel him trying to push his senses to see if he could find Borden through intuition alone. We entered the cave, Arthur and each knight drawing their swords one by one. We pushed deeper into the cave, Arthur leading with Merlin right next to him. I kept just behind Merlin, having seen way too many horror movies to accept being the last one at the back of the group.

Arthur was getting annoyed. "Merlin, this is ridiculous. Where's he heading?"

"There's light ahead," Merlin replied, indicating a waterfall.

The King sheathed his sword, put his hand through it and crossed to the other side, spitting out the water in his mouth. We all followed and I kept my arms crossed, not wanting them to see my form better now that my sopping clothes stuck to my body. We continued up a hill and out of the forest.

"No wonder no one's ever found it," Gwaine commented wryly.

At the top of the hill, on our right, was a singular stone tower. Merlin was the first to head for it, and we all followed right after him. However, as soon as we entered a trench between two large walls of rock, an arrow came out of _nowhere_ and shot Percival in the leg! "Take cover!" Arthur yelled, and we pressed our backs to the unyielding rock, trying to shield ourselves from the rain of arrows from above. I shuddered as each point of the rock pressed against my shoulder blades. Damn it, I'd forgotten this part!

Arthur checked on Percival verbally from his position, and soon another arrow was shot, landing _right next_ to Percival's head. The King, startled, demanded, "Where's he firing from?" He turned to Leon. "I'll draw fire, get him to safety," he said, indicating a groaning Percival a few feet away.

Borden kept shooting as Arthur kept his attention away from Leon dragging Percival to his feet to take cover against the wall. I curled into myself, tense, watching as Merlin spied Borden's position on the ridge. He got Arthur's attention and directed his line of vision. Arthur leaned out a bit for a second to make sure, then looked to his knights and formulated a plan. I just watched them and Merlin, waiting for him to use magic on Borden's bow. I needed to see if Arthur would notice or not when Merlin's eye glowed burnt orange.

He almost did. Once he'd made his plan, Arthur looked back at Merlin to confirm something, and I could feel Merlin summoning his magic to tear the bow out of Borden's hands. Merlin wasn't even looking at Arthur. I thought fast, and pretended to slip on the floor of leaves, knocking into Merlin and taking away his focus while Arthur sprinted to the other side of the trench. An arrow _barely_ missed him, nicking his sleeve, and this distracted Arthur enough for Merlin to magic the crossbow out of a puzzled Borden's hands and smash it against a tree.

I heard branches breaking and leaves being disturbed and assumed that Borden had left. Arthur sneaked up to where Borden had been, sword in hand, probably ready for a fight. However, all he found was nothing. "What happened? Where's he gone?" He looked down to us confusedly.

"Perhaps he ran out of bolts," Merlin called up to him. He didn't even sound like he believed his own suggestion.

Arthur shook his head incredulously and kept going, the rest of the group following him at various speeds, Percival grimacing and limping because of his leg. Merlin surpassed Arthur, he was going so fast, and nearly ran into a spiky-looking branch left there suspiciously.

"Careful!"

Merlin stopped just in time, sliding a bit under the branch. Arthur fisted Merlin's sleeve and dragged him away from the branch, preventing him from going onwards. "Who knows what he's left lying in wait for us," he cautioned. I eyed the branch with distaste, starting to get really bloody tired with all this. Riding a horse, creepy druids in the dark, getting wet, general creepiness, dirt, the wild, being shot at and now having traps being laid for me. And soon, a poison attempt, I remembered, beginning to get lost in thought. I noticed the others starting to walk away, preparing to make camp in a nearby clearing. I followed and helped.

Merlin started to cook some soup, but I could feel someone else's presence. I deliberately kept my eyes away from where I knew Borden to be lying in wait for an opportunity to poison us all. As soon as Merlin stepped away from the pot for a moment, Borden shot some pouch thing into it with a slingshot. I have to give the guy credit, he has good aim. I watched nervously as Merlin was about to eat some of the stew, but sighed quietly in relief when Arthur interrupted him. I could also feel that Borden's presence was gone, on his way to the tower and the famed dragon egg within it.

"Merlin, can you get some more firewood?" Arthur asked, back to joking.

"Well, I was just going to try the soup-"

"Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. This is good. Guys, you got to try this," Arthur gloated, inviting the knights over to join the fun. They did and I watched as they all served themselves poison, feeling like I was doing something wrong but knowing that it should be this way. Merlin left to gather firewood like Arthur had _requested_ and came back to find them all passed out. I'd watched that too. I hadn't touched the soup either.

"All right, don't tell me...it was too salty." Merlin suspected nothing so far. I decided I'd tell him if he didn't figure it out soon enough or if he tried to eat some soup. He observed Gwaine snoring and purposefully dropped the firewood with a loud _thunk,_ but none of them stirred.

Merlin shrugged and started to mutter, "Well, if you think I'm doing the washing..." then he found the poultice that Borden shot into the soup. He glanced at me, incredulous, then sniffed it. His eyes widened in alarm, recognizing the scent as poison from being Gaius' apprentice. We both looked over as Arthur started having trouble breathing, and we rushed over to check on him. The knights began to suffocate as well.

Merlin placed a hand on Arthur's chest and whispered fiercely, "Ic þe þurhhæle þin licsare!" his eyes glowing burnt orange. Arthur inhaled and exhaled and returned to normal. Merlin rushed to Leon next, repeating the same spell. He did it for all the others too.

I followed quickly as Merlin scrambled through the forest in pursuit of Borden. At the tower, we glimpsed Borden right before he entered it. I lead the way, peeking around the corner and spying Borden opening the entrance to Ashkanar's tomb with the Triskelion.

"No!" Merlin yelled, his voice deep, hoarse and unnatural. I glanced uneasily at him.

The door opened and Borden looked back at us to gloat before entering. As he did, smoke poured into his face from gargoyles' mouths. Borden coughed and sank slowly to the ground, but the smoke, as if it had a mind of its own, left the pig to suffocate and came towards me and Merlin. Merlin covered his face with his jacket and held up a hand while I, having naught but my long-sleeved shirt to help me, simply covered my mouth and nose with my hands.

"Þrosm tohweorfe!" Merlin cried, and, just like _magic_ (ha ha, I'm so funny), the smoke got sucked back into the gargoyles guarding Ashkanar's tomb. We continued past an unconscious Borden, Merlin picking up the torch as an afterthought. A few steps up later, we emerged into a grand hall, the dragon egg sitting right in the middle of it. Without even having seen this all before, I knew that this was a trap. I've seen spy and crime movies too. However, Merlin was blissfully unaware of this, or perhaps willing to ignore it. He smiled sweetly as he saw the teardrop-shaped egg on the sunlit pedestal. He handed the torch to me and carefully approached the object of his quest.

As soon as he touched it, a smoke-hoarsened voice spoke up from behind me, making me jump and turn. "Give it to me." Borden looked terrible, his eyes were red-rimmed and his face sweaty. He walked forwards and I walked backwards, still clutching the torch.

"It's not yours to take," Merlin replied, angry.

"You give it to me and I will grant you a half-share, Merlin." He glanced at me and added indifferently, "You could split it between yourselves, I suppose." I scoffed, insulted that I kept being pushed aside and forgotten in this episode.

Merlin shook his head vigorously. "No, it must go free."

"Don't be a fool! Think of the power it could bring us! The lands we can rule over, the riches," Borden cried, on the edge of crazy.

"I'm not interested in that."

Borden kept going. "With this dragon at our command, we will live like kings. We will have the freedom and power to do as we wish!"

This was seriously pissing Merlin off, I could tell. "Dragons cannot be used like that! They must be left unshackled, free to roam the earth."

"But this is your chance. Your chance to escape your meaningless lives, your worthless existences!"

I spoke up for the first time since last night with the druids. "It's not our lives that're pitiable, it's yours. Wasted...for _nothing,_ " I sneered.

Borden unsheathed a dagger and pointed it me, enraged. "I pieced together the Triskellian. I found the path that led us here! The dragon belongs to me! Now, hand it over!" He thumped his chest with his fist, sounding and looking more and more like the ugly caveman that he was.

"No." And with that, he threw Borden to the ground with his magic, the dagger clattering away. I bent down and recovered it, pointing it at the downed man for extra measure.

"Thanks," I muttered to Merlin.

"No problem," Merlin replied without looking at me. "I am the last dragon lord. And I am warning you... leave this egg alone."

Borden glanced at the egg, then tried to get up and attack Merlin, but the warlock threw Borden against a column, knocking him unconscious for good. Merlin went up to the pedestal, looking to me before he took it gently. "Get ready to run," I warned, just as the tower began to collapse around us. I dropped the torch and sheathed the dagger as Merlin cradled the egg to his chest, grabbed my hand with his other one and ran out, both of us dodging falling rock.

We reached his satchel in the woods and Merlin stuffed the dragon egg in it, just in time. The knights and Arthur ran up to him as I watched the tower crumble to nothingness, thinking of the life, however annoying and homicidal, forever gone, that I had played a part in.

Arthur looked lost. "What the hell happened?" I dusted myself off, noticing, bemused, how Merlin was covered in stone dust too.

"The tomb is a trap. He set it off. He never got out," Merlin explained easily. The situation reminded me of the show _How To Get Away With Murder._

"What about the egg?"

Merlin shook his head while I shrugged. "It would've perished with him," I said. This was only the third time I'd spoken to Arthur the whole time I'd been in Camelot. Wow.

"Are you sure? We need to be certain."

Leon assured him, "Nothing's going to survive under all that."

The tower had completely collapsed. Merlin glanced down at the satchel, sharing a relieved glance with me.

"C'mon. Let's go home," Arthur announced, putting an arm around Merlin and leading the group back to the camp.

We rode all day, and a bit more the next morning, but we finally arrived back in Camelot after almost a week of tracking down a dragon egg thief and subsequently saving the egg from our own allies. Oh well. At least Aithusa was safe now.

After Merlin got the group's horses comfortable in the stable, me and him went to Gaius' quarters, very dirty, still covered in white stone dust, sore and quite tired. Gaius took one look at us and immediately sent us to our room to bathe, change and sleep while he made a late lunch. I bathed first while Merlin waited with his head resting on his shoulder just outside, fast asleep. Then he bathed and I rested.

Lunch was a silent affair, both of us too tired to make any sort of coherent conversation. Gaius sent us back to bed after the meal and we obeyed, both of us falling asleep instantly, dead to the world after the tense week. I mean, we'd just stolen a dragon egg from a paranoid dead guy's tomb right under the nose of the King of Camelot (literally!) and we'd killed a man in the process and made the acquaintance of a weird group of druids in the middle of the night. Whew!

At dinner, Gaius finally brought it up. "Shame about the egg."

"Yes," Merlin agreed nonchalantly.

"You weren't able to save it?" Gaius confirmed.

I shook my head. "Nope."

Gaius regarded us both for a long moment. Merlin fidgeted, looking elsewhere before glancing up at Gaius and tilting his head in question. He started to grin and Gaius joined in, both of them starting to chuckle. I smiled as Merlin got up quickly to fetch the egg.

"All the jewels, all the treasures, Gaius, they don't compare," he said as he pulled it out delicately from his bag and handed it to Gaius.

Gaius made a "hmmm" sound, then commented, "And it was nearly lost because of you."

"I'm sorry, Gaius. I was too quick to act," Merlin apologized.

I stepped forward. "No, I'm sorry. I knew the consequences of sneaking the last third of the Triskelion to Borden, but I encouraged Merlin to do it anyway."

Gaius sighed. "You both have to think things through. Ashkanar did exactly that. He had the foresight to conceal this for more than four hundred years. And now it's down to you two." He handed the egg back to Merlin. "For you to decide what you intend to do with it."

"I thought about that. We're going to make sure it goes back to where it belongs," Merlin replied, looking down at me and smiling.

We waited until it was truly dark, maybe midnight or so, to sneak out of the castle and into the clearing where we'd last met Kilgharrah. Merlin put the egg on a tree stump and the big dragon swooped in and landed in front us, somehow knowing when we'd be here.

Merlin eyed the blue egg. "Is it still alive?" he wondered out loud.

"It can live for more than a thousand years," Kilgharrah confirmed.

Merlin smiled that sweet smile again. I kind of liked it. "So, you are no longer the last of your kind."

Kilgharrah looked at me and chuckled, "It would seem not." And in my head he added, _And it would seem Merlin might not be the last dragon lord either._ I blushed furiously.

"When will it hatch?" Merlin was oblivious to our hidden conversation, thankfully.

"Young dragons were called into the world by the dragon lords. Only they had the power to summon them from the egg. As the last dragon lord, this solemn duty falls to you, Merlin," Kilgharrah replied, serious once again.

Merlin neared the egg. "How do I summon it?"

"You must give the dragon a name."

I could feel Merlin thinking hard for a moment, then he looked at me, eyebrows raised as if he had an idea. He closed his eyes and Kilgharrah and I watched him closely.

"Annora," he whispered in the dragon tongue.

The egg cracked and _the cutest_ little white dragon you've ever seen poked her head out, all curious-like. "Aww," I cooed. Merlin grinned, happy tears in his eyes.

"A white dragon is, indeed, a rare thing...and fitting. For in the dragon tongue, you named her after hope. No dragon birth is without meaning."

Merlin's smile grew wider as he watched the dragon - Annora - continue to break her way out of her shell.

Kilgharrah spoke again. "Sometimes the meaning is hard to see, but this time I believe it is clear. The white dragon bodes well for Albion, for you and Arthur, and for the land that you will build together."

I smiled, happy that everything seemed to have worked out, but I couldn't help but wonder - wasn't the white dragon supposed to be named _Aithusa?_

* * *

**AN: This will be continued in _From 2015 to 485: S4E5 His Father's Son, chapter 1 coming soon!_**


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